A few years ago, most people would have laughed reading an article of this type and certainly would never have looked for solutions to work on Office files from mobile phones . Today, however, with the wide availability of Android tablets and also with smartphones with a fairly large screen, using touchscreen controls or even connecting a keyboard, it would not be such a strange idea to be able to create a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document without using a computer. Thanks to some extremely optimized and complete applications, it is in fact possible, on any Android mobile phone or tablet, to open, edit and save Office documents compatible with Word, Excel and Powerpoint formats . The best thing is that many of these apps are free to use.
Best Office apps for Android
SmartOffice works with all Office file formats, therefore that of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, offers password protection of documents and allows you to save without problems in cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. As an interface it is also very nice to look at and reminiscent of the old Microsoft Office suites while remaining modern and intuitive with touch features.
The app supports for all Microsoft Office formats including doc, xls and ppt, allows you to open, annotate, highlight and share PDF documents; it has a reading mode for Word documents and supports wireles printing.
SmartOffice is completely free, with no in-app purchases.
Among the best features of Polaris Office are the ideal Chromecast support for projecting presentations on TV, the ability to save documents in PDF and a camera scan tool to digitize paper documents.
Google Drive Office has many advanced features and integrated tools that always make it an app to keep installed on your phone.
Meanwhile, the interface is clean and simple, then it supports Word, Powerpoint and Excel files and can also save documents in PDF format and also works as a PDF reader. The files can be saved in Google Drive for free and are also accessible offline, if you wish, to be able to edit them even without an internet connection.
Google Drive can also be used to save files other than documents in the cloud (such as images, videos, etc.). With Google Drive you can scan a photo to be taken with the camera or in the phone gallery, extract the text written with optical character recognition and save it in a new document. The mobile phone then becomes a perfect scanner capable of transforming a printed sheet of paper into a digital document.
In addition, all documents saved on the web space offered by Google can be viewed, opened and even printed directly from the mobile phone using a wifi printer or via the Cloud Print application.
In another article, the guide to create Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on Android with these Google applications.
WPS Office, which is definitely the most advanced office suite on Android, has everything you need to work on documents and some special features including:
The Android app allows users to view Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office files, edit and create Excel, PowerPoint and Word files, use special formatting tools such as word count, tables, font color and the ability to keep track changes.
Quip is one of the new Office for Android on the list, completely free, with the possibility to collaborate on documents with other people. The main features of Quip are the functions of Excel spreadsheet and Word word processing. All team members can view and edit documents at the same time and also have the option to add comments if needed. Quip also has its chat rooms, synchronization between devices, offline support and various export options. It also has cloud storage support.
OfficeSuite Viewer allows you to access and view both the documents stored on your mobile phone and those saved on the internet in Dropbox, in Google Docs or Box.net (which are also synchronized).
The application is also in Italian and supports almost all types of Office files: DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, LOG, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX, EML, PDF and ZIP.
Best Office apps for Android
1) Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office for Android with Word, Excel and Powerpoint is the official application that contains the Word, Excel and Powerpoint programs in mobile version, free and without limitations. The apps work well and synchronize the documents on the Microsoft account, inside Onedrive, so you can find them on your computer. All offer a similar clean interface, templates for starting new documents, numerous editing options and a familiar workflow with the PC program. While Office for Android may be a perfect and unrivaled app, however, advanced features are only available through an Office 365 subscription.2) SmartOffice
SmartOffice is a great option for those who want to leave the Microsoft ecosystem, but still use something familiar and similar.SmartOffice works with all Office file formats, therefore that of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, offers password protection of documents and allows you to save without problems in cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. As an interface it is also very nice to look at and reminiscent of the old Microsoft Office suites while remaining modern and intuitive with touch features.
The app supports for all Microsoft Office formats including doc, xls and ppt, allows you to open, annotate, highlight and share PDF documents; it has a reading mode for Word documents and supports wireles printing.
SmartOffice is completely free, with no in-app purchases.
3) Polaris Office
Polaris Office for Android is an excellent app which, like all the other apps on this list, supports Microsoft Office file formats and also includes an integrated PDF viewer. The interface is very clean without distractions, ideal for working and writing a new document or modifying an existing one. The files can be saved to your cloud drive (Polaris Drive) or, if you prefer a different way to synchronize them, you can also configure an external cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive, Amazon Cloud Drive or others.Among the best features of Polaris Office are the ideal Chromecast support for projecting presentations on TV, the ability to save documents in PDF and a camera scan tool to digitize paper documents.
4) Google Drive
The Google Drive application has always been the default on Android to view Office documents via smartphone. The Google Office apps must be installed separately, not only therefore Google Drive, but also Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Presentazoni, for a total of 4 apps to obtain the complete suite (unlike other Office apps that group everything in one app).Google Drive Office has many advanced features and integrated tools that always make it an app to keep installed on your phone.
Meanwhile, the interface is clean and simple, then it supports Word, Powerpoint and Excel files and can also save documents in PDF format and also works as a PDF reader. The files can be saved in Google Drive for free and are also accessible offline, if you wish, to be able to edit them even without an internet connection.
Google Drive can also be used to save files other than documents in the cloud (such as images, videos, etc.). With Google Drive you can scan a photo to be taken with the camera or in the phone gallery, extract the text written with optical character recognition and save it in a new document. The mobile phone then becomes a perfect scanner capable of transforming a printed sheet of paper into a digital document.
In addition, all documents saved on the web space offered by Google can be viewed, opened and even printed directly from the mobile phone using a wifi printer or via the Cloud Print application.
In another article, the guide to create Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on Android with these Google applications.
5) WPS Office
If you want to create, edit and manage documents and spreadsheets on your Android smartphone, then you can download and install WPS Office, free, fully compatible to manage Microsoft Office files from Android phones or tablets. With the excellent and light interface of the application, easy to use and very well optimized, you can view all documents written with Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX) and Powerpoint (PPT, PPTX) and you can also create new Word documents and Excel spreadsheets from scratch.WPS Office, which is definitely the most advanced office suite on Android, has everything you need to work on documents and some special features including:
- The built- in file manager useful for automatically organizing created or modified Office documents;
- Tight integration with the email application to open email attachments and to send documents quickly, directly after modification or creation.
- Ability to save files online on cloud services (Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive, Box).
- Compatibility with USB and Bluetooth keyboards
- Support for wireless printing
- Automatic save and encrypted protection
- Option to share files using WiFi, NFC or DNLA
6) AndrOpen Office
AndrOpen Office is the app that brings the Open Office suite for Android, identical to the original open source program for PC, which works with the OpenDocument format. Like the other Office suites for Android, it includes tools equivalent to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, for processing texts, spreadsheets and presentations, with the addition of a drawing tool and a math editor.7) Documents To Go
Documents To Go is a famous and popular Office app for Android that allows, on mobile phones and tablets, to open files prepared with Microsoft Office, to view, edit, save and synchronize documents with the cloud of Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, and Google Drive.The Android app allows users to view Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office files, edit and create Excel, PowerPoint and Word files, use special formatting tools such as word count, tables, font color and the ability to keep track changes.
8) Quip
Quip is one of the new Office for Android on the list, completely free, with the possibility to collaborate on documents with other people. The main features of Quip are the functions of Excel spreadsheet and Word word processing. All team members can view and edit documents at the same time and also have the option to add comments if needed. Quip also has its chat rooms, synchronization between devices, offline support and various export options. It also has cloud storage support.
9) OfficeSuite Viewer
Another free Office application for Android is Office Suite Viewer .OfficeSuite Viewer allows you to access and view both the documents stored on your mobile phone and those saved on the internet in Dropbox, in Google Docs or Box.net (which are also synchronized).
The application is also in Italian and supports almost all types of Office files: DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, LOG, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX, EML, PDF and ZIP.
